Post #148876 by Futura Girl on Thu, Mar 24, 2005 8:13 AM

way back in the day - the stone ages - pre-web... when CRTs first started to rule the world.... it was generally accepted that dark backround screens were easier to read.

this makes sense - because your eyes are not staring into a bright light source which can be fatiguing. hence, most of the the earliest computer displays were amber text on black.

nowadays the web presents a different set of issues - i tend to recommend lighter colored backgrounds for web clients that have sites where people will regularly print out pages.

if you have white or light text on a dark background - chances are you will bhave printing issues. there are programming ways around this, but overall - that's the reason for the recommendation of light colored background websites.

*On 2005-03-18 12:13, freddiefreelance wrote:*Back in the olden days, when we used to run a computer by rubbing two sticks together (the late 1970's, before then you would run a computer by banging 2 rocks together), you would have a dark screen with lighter letters on your terminal. After many hours of coding you would start getting eye strain, and many programmers would reverse the foreground & background, put on sun glasses & continue coding.

ah... someone else who remembers the olde thyme days... staring at any screen light or dark for hours at a time will give you eye strain, but staring at a darker background CRT display is STILL easier on the eyes overall.

[ Edited by: Futura Girl on 2005-03-24 08:18 ]